


Unsaid

by gbbs



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 05:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2720246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gbbs/pseuds/gbbs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Works both as a stand alone fic that takes place after the S2 finale or as a sequel to "Don't leave me here where I can't find you". Comments are appreciated :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unsaid

“You don’t have to tell me anything, Grace.”

But Grace wanted to. She felt the urge to talk creeping up on her, slowly taking over. Tommy was quiet and calm as ever, sitting in his chair absently looking at her. She could almost hear his brain working, all the focus on that one goal. As soon as they met again he greeted her, invited her to sit and started talking business-like. But she knew it wasn’t business. She didn’t want it to be. 

“I don’t want to talk about how we’re going to solve this, Tommy. Please, listen.”

“That’s what we should be talking about. The baby”- he stoppped to really look at her for the first time since she walked in, a gleam in his eyes – “should be a Shelby. Legitimate, aye. I won’t take risks on this matter. You need a divorce. Then you’ll need to become a Shelby yourself. We need to figure out an official timeline and stick with it. What if you go away for a while? Do you have family in Ireland still? Maybe we should register the baby when it’s older.” He fell quiet again, his brain – wasn’t that the source of all his victories and his troubles, the way his brain found its way around challenges, the way they pleased them, the way it haunted him – working furiously against what he saw as obstacles to his goal.

“Tommy, did you kill Campbell?” – that managed to stop him on his track.

“Why, are you sad about it?”

“Don’t say stupid things. I wish I had done it myself.” – at that he smiled a little.

“Pol did it. He messed with her and her son. I’ll give her your congratulations later.”

“Please do. Now that I’m with a child I hope she’ll feel less inclined to end me the same way she did him. At least I hope.” 

“Pol doesn’t care. She says she’s given up on us all. Has your husband given up on you yet, Grace? How long will you be someone else’s wife?”

“I don’t know, Tommy. I... don’t have answers. It’s different with him. It’s not like I’m getting rid of someone I detest. He is a good man. I’m sure you understand. May seems nice. Too nice for you, if you ask me, but still nice.”

“She is nice” – he studied her, calculating how much he could tell. She studied him right back, looking for the things he was planning to leave unsaid. They both wanted to be together but they couldn’t help but feel like they were losing a battle. Being together was a triumph of their affection but a failure of their will and both of them hated losing very much. – “She... is a widow. I don’t know what you’re looking for here, Grace. She’s smart and really wanted to win but don’t we all? May lost interest when I told her about the baby.”

“You told her?” – Grace was almost upset. As if she wasn’t enough for him, he had to do it for the baby. – “You tell her everything, it seems.”

Grace stared at the floor, feelings flushing her. She hated this. She wanted to go back to the person she used to be, to the Tommy she used to love and time after time she learned it was impossible. It was gone. He wouldn’t say anything but she could feel accusation on his eyes, the fact that she married someone else always on the back of his mind.  
“I... Tommy, I want to tell you. About me. Who I am.”

“I don’t need you to tell me anything. I know you.”

“But I want to. You do know me, Tommy. Now I want you to know about me.”

 

 

He told Arthur first. He knew he liked Grace and was sad when she betrayed them. So he told him and Arthur at first laughed, then told him he was mad and after watching a expressionless Tommy wait for his reaction asked, earnestly: “are you sure it’s yours, Tommy?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you know her? What do you know about her anyway?”

“She told me things, Arthur. She’s irish, as you know. Mother died when she was a young girl. Helped raise a younger brother. He was a fragile child and died before he turned fifteen. He knew how to play the piano and she sang. Her father was a copper, shot by the IRA a year before she came to Birmingham. She was after the guns because she hated them. She did it for her family, Arthur. Campbell was a friend of her father. He proposed to her and then he tried to kill her.”

“And she shot him first.”

“And she shot him first.” Tommy said, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Sounds about right.”

 

 

“You’re really bringing that snitch back into our lives, aren’t you?” Polly pretended she didn’t care – it was easy than arguing with Tommy but a part of her still wanted to slap some sense into him like she used to manage when he was a young boy.

“Pol, she’s pregnant with my child. What am I supposed to do?”

“Does she have to come with the child? Make her stay and have the baby. I’ll raise it. Raised all of you boys alright, I can do it again.” Polly immediately regretted voicing this idea. As much as se hated Grace she knew the pain of having your child taken away. “Oh, just forget it. She has guts and I hate that about her. I can’t believe she came back.”

“You wouldn’t have done the same?” Tommy asked and Polly knew him well enough to know he was surprised.

“No. I would have taken the child away. This is no life. Her husband is a rich man, isn’t he?”

“So am I, Pol”

At this she laughed: “Yes but at what cost? That child will never be truly safe. She does like you, Tommy, and that’s the only stupid thing about her.”

"Well, then be thankful for her stupidity. It's giving me a child."

"Like you wouldn't take her back anyway. Who are you pretending to fool, Tommy?"

"Pol... I am not pretending to fool anybody."

"Except for her husband."

At that Tommy got up and and left the room but Polly could tell he wasn't angry. "Too damn happy to be angry. Stupid boy", she murmured to herself.


End file.
